Burgess Family Blog

Freezer Meals!

2012-01-24T15:51:00.000-05:00

For all those moms who are adopting or having a baby (or anyone else who likes freezer meals!), I'm adding a new section to the blog on the side bar on the right. It includes links to freezer meals (recipes to meals that freeze well) that we have tried and really enjoy. Another section will include links to freezer meals we are going to try soon - no idea if my family will like each recipe yet or not :)

Hopefully, you will find some new favorite recipes for your family to enjoy. I pray that it will make preparing to bring your child/children home just a little bit easier. As I do more research and planning, I'll add more - so check back often!

Karen

Our dossier will soon be on the move!

2012-01-22T16:25:00.000-05:00

We heard from our agency this past week that our dossier is back in Bogota and will soon be heading off to Cali, which means they probably have a sibling group they would like to refer to us! I'm really, really excited about this but am trying hard to keep my mind focused on my responsibilities around the house and with the children. I know that as soon as we accept a referral it will be really hard for me to concentrate on anything else but getting the house ready (Nesting syndrome!) and envisioning our new family together.

I think, if we were to get referral information around the middle of February (just a guess, I really don't have any idea on when we would get the referral), then the earliest we would likely travel would be the middle or end of April. We may have time to put our garden in, and maybe I'll be able to hit a few yard sales! Spring is also a much better time for us to be away from our animals. We may end up just putting them all in a truck and taking them to a friends house to care for while we are in Colombia. That would make it a lot easier on our friends! We have a bunch of chickens, rabbits, turkeys, two guinea hens and soon to be two cats.

Please keep our family in your prayers, as well as the children we are to adopt and the ones we had to say we couldn't adopt. We are in the process of applying for grants, including a matching grant, which could really help pay for a lot of the adoption costs. I'm excited to see how God works all of it out!

Karen

Welcoming in 2012 and looking back at 2011

2012-01-10T20:51:00.000-05:00

I find it hard to believe that it's already January 2012. 2011 was filled with so many wonderful, big changes for our family that the saying "it just flew by" is perfectly accurate. It was a big year for us, with adjusting to having Lyric as a new member of our family, putting in a new garden (including removing stumps and roots!), and gathering all the paperwork for our Colombian adoption. We have been blessed beyond measure, and we humbly thank God for all that He has provided for us and directed us to in past years - most notably would be home schooling our children and adoption.

I am happy to say that our children are all doing really well together and are well-adjusted to one-another. When we started the adoption process I figured it may take a year for all of us to truly feel as if we were "one" family and not like we were still working at being a true family unit with segmented parts. Sometimes when you add another child to your family there is a natural tendency for the children who were already in the home (and even the parents) to think about or even comment about what it was like without the newly adopted child(ren). Those kind of comments and thoughts are a thing of the past now for us, and we can't imagine our lives without our precious Lyric. You should hear that girl laugh. It is such a sweet, precious sound that you never want it to stop.

CJ at 4H awards banquet

Carissa, Tyler and Laurel are growing up so fast. Our sweet firstborn is now taller than I am - and she is only 13! It really makes it hard to discipline her. I usually start to laugh as I am looking up at her instead of down to her... "CJ" has show rabbits now, in addition to her chickens. We haven't had a successful attempt at breeding her rabbits yet, but hopefully that will happen soon! The past year she has enjoyed reading, working with her animals, sewing, and growing into a young lady.

Tyler hanging out at park

Tyler is now 12 and is becoming quite the young man. He has been having a growth spurt and will, in no time soon, surpass me in height also! I really enjoy watching him with Lyric, as they are "two peas in a pod". She can do anything to him, and he doesn't let it phase him. For 2011, I fondly remember Tyler helping get the garden ready with digging out stumps and hauling dirt. He did great at chopping and hauling wood - and keeps us well supplied with wood on our deck (for our wood-burning stove insert) so that we all stay warm! He enjoys reading, playing any type of game, and has recently purchased a few show rabbits for himself as well.

Laurel engrossed in a mystery

Laurel has finally reached the double digits and turned 10 in 2011. She has a big, big heart for others and if there is ever a special time or birthday for anyone that she knows, she will go out of her way to make a special card or gift for them. Recently she has taken an interest in "creating" edible experiments in the kitchen. Before our very eyes she turns into a "mad scientist". You have to be very, very careful with eating what she gives you. It is always edible - but you don't always want to take a very big bite of it! Trust me...

Lyric, in China, eating peanut butter on a stick

Lyric is all of 4 years old now - technically 4 1/2! She has grown out of most of her 18 mth clothes and is now in size two. In 2011 she grew 2 1/2 inches! We have a measurement chart for the children in our kitchen, but at times I wonder if this is such a good idea. Right now, she really enjoys being measured once a month and seeing how she has grown but there may come a time when her body slows down its growth and she comes to the realization that she is much shorter than others her age. Our goal is to build her self-confidence in herself so that should she not grow to an average height, it won't be a major concern for her.

Lyric, pouting for fun

In 2011 Lyric learned how to jump and get air between her feet and the floor, she learned how to do a roll on the floor, she learned the love of a mommy and daddy, of sisters and a brother, she learned a whole new language, and most importantly she is learning about God and his son, Jesus, who died for our sins.

Everything has been quiet as far as our adoption from Colombia goes. Oddly enough, it's been rather peaceful not thinking about the next bit of paperwork that needs to be turned in or if we filled all the documents out correctly. By now, our dossier should have been received back at the main ICBF headquarters in Bogota. Children's Hope, our adoption agency, is going to check on this for us next week to make sure. It may have already been sent to another region, but it may not have. The paperwork process for adoptions tends to slow down a bit in December. I'll keep you posted when we hear more news!

Please continue to pray for the children whose referral we could not accept - they need a family, and they need to know the love of Jesus if they don't know Him already. If you are interested at all in adopting a sibling group of 4 (or any children!) from Colombia - ages 9 and under - please get in contact with Nichole at Children's Hope International.

Thank you for your prayers for our family,

Karen

Really hard decision.

2011-11-20T19:09:00.000-05:00

It has been a difficult last few days for our family, but we are doing a lot better now. We received a lot of information Monday on the children who were sort-of referred (they were working on the official referral) to us from Colombia. I am really impressed and grateful for all the details and reports that ICBF puts together and gives to the prospective adoptive parents for review. We received 30 pages of information in one report and in another there were 60 pages!

This part is going to be pretty vague on our reasons, but we did have to let our agency know that we felt this particular group of children would not be a good match for our family - and for the sibling group themselves. We knew when our hearts were opened to adoption that any child we brought into our home would likely have a past filled with turmoil and hurt. In this case, we felt we would not be able to provide the best type of attention the children would need, especially with already having our other four.

I was just about to write how difficult the adoption process can be at times for some adoptive parents, but then I remembered the children. The trials we go through in having delayed paperwork, the complaints we may have in needing to notarize one more piece of paper, or even having to make the difficult decision that our family isn't the best one to provide for the specific needs of a certain child during the adoption process are nothing compared to those trials and difficulties that an orphan is often forced to experience:

The loss of a mother and a father
No kisses or cuddles
Malnutrition
Forced child labor
Parasites
Sexual abuse
Mental abuse
Physical abuse
Abandonment

These are all real.

I haven't had to experience any of them in my life -
and I am 37 years old.

The children we were referred have.

The oldest child is only 9 years old. Within the 9 short years of his life, he had experienced not just one of these "difficulties", not just two of these "difficulties", but he had to experience almost ALL of them. Please, consider welcoming a child into your home and into your family and give a child the gift of:

A mother and a father
Kisses and cuddles
Food
A time to play
A healthy body
Safety
Kind words
A gentle hand
The comfort of knowing you will be there for them when they need you

These are all real.

Please help us in the Kohl's Love to Give Contest! We need your vote!

2011-11-17T22:43:00.001-05:00

Our family has an entry in the Kohl's Love to Give Contest and we need your vote! If you are on Facebook or would like to join up, you can vote for us each day until November 28th. If we are one of 200 entrants to be chosen, we could go on to the Finalist Contest! Votes count for 10% of the judges decisions. If we make it to the Finals, I think the number of votes each entry has is how they determine the winners.

Here is a link to our page: Her belly wasn't full.

Just follow the link, sign in to facebook, "like" Kohl's, and click the big "vote" button. Really simple! Oh - and please share the link with others. That will help a lot!

This is pretty much what our entry looks like:

Her belly wasn't full.

At 3 yrs old, Lyric didn't know how to feel full & kept eating & eating, not knowing how to stop. She’s better now, but it took about a year before she knew that food was always available and that she wouldn’t go hungry. We adopted Lyric in Dec. 2010, and she is one of the inspirations for our family of 6. On our own, we can't provide for all the orphans, but we can provide for a few. We have been approved to adopt a sibling group of 4 – I can’t wait to shower them with love, hugs – and food!

Thank you for helping us!

NAMES, GENDERS AND AGES - OH MY!

2011-10-29T01:00:00.000-04:00

Thankfully, within the last week we have gotten everything else we needed paperwork-wise to Nichole's desk at Children's Hope. It all should have been there by 10:00 this morning. (This should be all that Colombia needs in order to give us an official referral match with the children!) We knew Nichole was flying back from Colombia last night and that she would be in the office for a few hours today, and just in case she had a chance to forward our paperwork on to Colombia, we wanted it ready for her!

We knew she would be in today - we just didn't know when. I thought if we did hear from her it would be in an email, so I was really surprised when Kevin came over and said he needed to see me in the office - quickly.

I didn't have a clue.

I heard Tyler yell from the kitchen, "Did you get a phone call?"

I still didn't have a clue.

Kevin replied in an unbelievably steady voice, "Yes. That's why I need your mother."

I'm starting to catch on.

"Yahoo!" yelled Tyler.

How did he figure it all out before I did???

At the door Kevin had to explain to me that Nichole had called! He said that she had names, genders, birthdays and where they were from! Ever hear the expression, "Be still my heart?" I'm not sure if it fits, but I think mine stopped for a few seconds. Words can not describe how I felt just KNOWING that we were going to get to hear this information.

We quickly left the children in the house, letting them know we would be back soon to share with them what we found out, and headed over to Kevin's office. I grabbed pen and paper while Kevin made the call - Oh, no! He had to leave a message! I asked if he tried Nichole's direct line and got that for him. Still busy. I theorized that Nichole was on the other end giving another family good news and that it could take awhile, so I headed back to the house. Kevin and I agreed that he would call me on my cell when Nichole called him,and then I would come back to the office.

Back at home, as I walked in the door I yelled that we didn't know anything yet because the phone was busy. I didn't want the kids getting their hopes up for information just because I walked in the door.

I got myself settled down again at the same place where I am now - yup, in front of the computer. In just a few more minutes MY phone rings and it's Nichole! She must not have received Kevin's message to call him at the office. I had Nichole wait a minute while I got my shoes on and headed back over to Kevin's office. (His office is above our detached garage. We wanted to talk to Nichole there b/c we have a nice land-line, otherwise it is just my cell phone with poor reception). He was surprised when I showed up! I gave Nichole Kev's office number and had just enough time to grab the pen and paper while waiting for her to call back.

The ages and the genders of the children couldn't be more perfect. Here is what we learned:

The oldest is a boy and he is 9 years old.
The next is a girl and she is 6 years old.
The next is another girl and she is 4 years old, but will be 5 in December.
The youngest is another boy and he is 3 years old (we thought originally 2 years old).

That means if we travel in January to pick them up, our children will be: 13, 12, 10, 9, 6, 5, 4 and 3! Oh my - look at it the other way! They will be 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, 12 and 13! It's going to be FUN! Oh, and as another adoptive mom pointed out to me - we will have 8 children within a 10 year time-span. I love it.

We did learn their names, but I'm not sure if I can share that yet. I'll ask next week and then post here if I can. We also learned that they are from Florencia. While researching Florencia I found the blog of another family who adopted a sibling group of 3 from the same area. I'll put that on my side bar. As soon as I'm done here, I'm going to read through their entire blog!

One of the things that we were hoping for is that we would travel by the end of the year, but that doesn't look like it is going to happen. Nichole said that ICBF (Colombia) was very disappointed with this as they really like to see the children with their new families as soon as possible, and they hoped we were an I600 family. If we were doing this adoption under what is called "I-600" then we could have traveled in about 2 weeks. But since we are what is called an "I-800" family, it will take our government at a minimum of 5 weeks to process all the paperwork they have us fill out. Bah. Humbug.

Fortunately, I am a BIG believer in God's perfect timing and that all things are for His glory. I am totally excited to be a part of this adoption adventure and grateful that He has opened our hearts to building our family through adoption. The waiting will be hard, but when we do finally get to meet our children it will be all the more sweeter because it is His perfect timing - and not ours (which isn't so perfect).

Can't wait to share more information with all of you!

In His name,

Karen

OH! I forgot to share how Carissa, Tyler, Laurel and Lyric responded to the news. Tyler was happy to hear that the 3 year old was a boy - he is finally (after 12 years) getting himself a brother. We said the next two were girls and everyone was really happy about that. Finally, we said that the oldest, who was 9, was a boy. Tyler, who was on the other side of the room from me and sitting on the couch, jumped up, ran to me and tackled me in pure joy and happiness. Laurel is happy that at least one of the older ones is a girl. Carissa is just happy she is getting more siblings. And Lyric, we told her she was going to be a big sister. So far, she's really liking it!

What a roller coaster kind-of day!

2011-10-20T23:44:00.000-04:00

Today definitely had its ups and downs regarding our adoption. At one point I apologized (via email) to our officer from USCIS for pestering her and not being patient. It may have been more than one phone call and one email last week to find out information and then it may have been (okay, I think it was) more than one phone call and one email this week to see if there was any new movement on our supplement 3 (approval we need to adopt up to 9 years old instead of up to 8 years old).

You see, there is a great website known as rumor queen (China Adopt Talk) that is mainly geared to China adoptions. Lots and lots of activity on that site and on the forums. They keep stats of every bit of paperwork so you know the average timelines for approvals. I was on it a lot for our adoption of Lyric, and I hopped back on it to track how fast the USCIS paperwork had been moving. What I was finding was that there were some people who already had their approvals for their I800's (processed at the same time as the supplement 3's) even though they had sent theirs in after us.

I let this information make me a bit, well, let's be nice and say "a little impatient" and sent me into what could lovingly be called "THE CHECKING ZONE" or not so lovingly as "TEMPORARY OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVENESS IN REGARDS TO VARIOUS ADOPTION PAPERWORK APPROVAL IN ORDER TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT STEP IN THE PROCESS DISORDER". This disorder looks a little like this (and if you know of anyone who is adopting you may recognize these signs on occasion): Mom is often found sitting in front of the computer. Just a little at first. And then you notice that she is more often at the computer then not at the computer. She may have developed a callus on her right index finger from hitting refresh on her screen every 5 minutes so she can check to see if there are any new emails. If she is waiting for a phone call, then when the phone rings, she feels a tightening in her stomach and a "let's not get my hopes up too much" feeling washes over her in the split second before she rushes to see who is calling. If she is expecting something in the mail, she watches or listens for the mail man. She KNOWS the earliest that he/she may arrive. If it is nice out, she may walk out herself to check. If it is not so nice and it is raining, she may bundle up the children and send them to check the mail while waiting comfortably inside the house at the door where she can yell out, "Anything?" just as soon as the children get close enough to hear her. (yes! I'm guilty! Fresh air is good for kids - even if it is raining). Dinners, breakfasts, and lunches were once really nice with a lot of home-made items. Now you notice that cereal, mac and cheese, hot dogs, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are frequenting the menu much more often. (We had hot dogs for dinner and I just bought peanut butter and bread for tomorrow's lunch. The peach jam is home-made though!)

Take heart. The symptoms of this disorder ARE temporary, but they can only be put into remission when whatever piece of paperwork she has been expecting has been delivered. It is a cycle, but she can be cured. She will be cured when she holds her precious child in her arms. It is a happy ending for a disorder with a really long name! (Beware though. On occasion, some moms who adopt find that the disorder sneaks back into their lives. Dad's: one sure sign it is coming back is if you often see your wife sitting in front of the computer (again) with pictures of many different children on the screen who don't have family's yet.) As far as disorders go - it's a really good one to have!)

Back to my day. Kind-of got side-tracked there. Because of this disorder, at 12:00 today I told myself I would not check my email again until 4:00. Gulp. I only made it until 2:00. (Baby steps here!) To my very, very surprised self, there were TWO emails from our officer at USCIS! I quickly clicked the top one and with a glance saw that we could be approved - IF they get some information from our adoption agency. I saw all this in a split second. Not one second later, my phone rings. Turning in slow motion towards the phone, I hear Laurel say, "It's an unknown caller." Hopping quickly out of my chair in front of the computer, I rush to answer the phone. On the other end of the line is our USCIS Officer! She asked if I had received her email. I think I blabbered that I had told myself I wouldn't check my email until four, but I couldn't wait that long and had just opened it up when she called (She is a good officer and let me blabber away). She told me the same thing the email said - that she could approve it today if we got some information from our agency. They had to send in evidence (a letter) which stated as a Hague-approved agency they had reviewed our home study and that it was all correct and conforms with, well, conforms with something. In just one of the emails I had previously sent her, I had told her that Nichole, from our agency, was actually in Colombia on behalf of Children's Hope, and that if I could get her our approval while she was still over there then she would get it translated and to the right people quickly. It seems our officer wanted to make sure, not only just by emailing, but by calling as well, that we could work on it as soon as possible. I told her I would contact our agency and see if anyone there could get it done, and guess what? They did! (Thank you, Children's Hope!) At 4:52 this afternoon we received an email saying that a "favorable decision had been rendered" on our application - in other words, "we were approved!"

Wait! There's more to the roller coaster ride! Before Nichole (from our agency) left for Colombia she had emailed and asked when our FBI fingerprints had last been done. I emailed her the other day that it was in April, but hadn't heard back yet b/c she is now in Colombia. I finally got around to looking in our travel guide and it said that the FBI prints have to be done within 6 months of travel. UH OH! It took about 8 weeks to get them done last time and we really would like to be in Colombia by then. (Personally, I think by the end of 2011 would be perfect timing to get our children, but my "perfect" timing and God's perfect timing isn't the same thing. Mine is flawed and His is not. Really excited to see how He works the rest of this adoption story out!)

When Kevin got home from work we rushed over to the police station at 3:30 to get our prints done and in the mail for the FBI in West Virginia. We did a few more errands (picked up peanut butter and bread) and headed back home by about 5:30. I felt drawn to the computer. Really, with this disorder, checking email is very hard to control. To those who have phones that you can check your email on - oh, how I fight Envy during times like these! My computer was the first thing I went to. Well, the second thing. I got a big hug from Lyric first.

How GREAT it was to see the email from our Officer at USCIS. We were approved! But wait. There is no remission for my disorder yet. I'm still hoping to get information from our agency about the children. That could come at ANY time. And next week, I'm sure to be running out to the mailbox (or in inclement weather I will bundle up the children for their bit of fresh air) just as soon as I think the mail man has been by.

After I checked email and had cheered (another symptom of the disorder I forgot to mention previously. Cheering can be accompanied with happy tears,hugs, lot's of phone calls to friends and family relaying the good news, and, yes, more time on the computer as the mom updates all her wonderful internet friends because she knows that many of them have experienced the same disorder or are even experiencing it now.), I saw a post on facebook from someone in my local Christian Adoption Support Group. Before we had left in a rush to get the FBI prints done, I had posted an update on our group (yes, updating others whom you have never met except online at every step of the process is a symptom!) about having to get the prints done and that it could take 8 weeks to get them back. Another adoptive mom had posted back that they went through the state police to get theirs done and it only took about 2 WEEKS!

"Um. Honey? Kevin? Maybe we should have waited a day to get our FBI fingerprints done"...

And that was the end of my day.

Almost.

I'm at the end of it now.

Telling friends, family, and those whom I have never met, all about my adoption roller coaster ride of the day.

(It can be one of the symptoms also...)

Grateful for all He has done in our lives and for placing adoption into our hearts,
Karen

Just the girls...

2011-10-16T01:11:00.000-04:00

Carissa at the state fair with one of her photography posters

At the zoo - it was a beautiful day with the sun shining and the wind gently blowing

At the zoo. Kevin had just bought some Dippin' Dots. Lyric really, really would like some!

Laurel dressed Lyric up for fun and added the memo :)

Just a quick update

2011-10-16T00:55:00.000-04:00

No new news on the children, but our paperwork is moving along with USCIS. We received our receipt in the mail at the beginning of the week, and I'm praying we receive our approval this coming week. I have been in contact with our officer at USCIS and she offered to let us know via email when our paperwork had a decision made on it. That will be really good to know so we can watch for the paperwork in the mail and be prepared to get it notarized and apostilled and sent to our agency the day we get it.

One bit of information we are pretty excited about is that Nichole from Children's Hope (our agency) will be traveling to Colombia on Tuesday. While there she will try to find out more information about the children for us! Very excited about that, and I know that after Tuesday of next week I will be checking my email about a gazillion times a day just to see if she had emailed us :)

After we do get the paperwork from USCIS we will scan it in and email it to Nichole so she can get it translated and into the right hands. Until then, we will keep on praying :)

In His name,

Karen

Waiting on the paperwork

2011-10-07T00:30:00.000-04:00

I realized a bit ago that I should have posted an update here before now! We decided to go ahead and update our home study so we could be approved for up to 9 years old, and about two weeks ago we had our social worker write up an addendum/update for us. As soon as she got that done, Kevin picked it up and brought it home. We signed the papers, scanned them in and emailed them to our agency. Nichole (from agency) then sent them on to Colombia to their translator, hoping to get a head start on the translating of the paperwork. Next, Kevin overnighted the paperwork to USCIS in Texas.

On Tuesday, October 4th at 3:30 in the morning, Kevin received a text saying our application/petition had been received and was routed to the National Benefits Center for processing. It said that within 7 - 10 days by standard mail we will receive our official Receipt Notice (Form I-797) with our Receipt Number. I know that's how it worked with our original I800 paperwork, but I'm not sure if it will be the same with this update. I think I'll give them a call on Monday to ask about the process. Oh, Kevin usually leaves his cell phone in the kitchen at night, but for some reason he had brought it upstairs with him that night. In the morning I had to ask him if he had really told me in the middle of the night that we had received the email or if I had just been dreaming!

We haven't received any more information on the children other then they are pretty healthy. It sounds like we won't learn anything else until after we get this new paperwork translated and into ICBF's (Colombia's Welfare Institute) hands.

In the mean time, we are having a fundraising yard sale! The weather has been absolutely beautiful, couldn't ask for anything better. Thank you to all our friends who have helped organize and offered to bring and/or brought tables for the sale. They have made it a lot nicer! Also, to my friend who has brought over not one but two meals for us to eat during the sale - THANK YOU! You are a wonderful example, and I plan to set one corner of my freezer aside so I can have ready-made freezer meals prepared and ready to give to someone who needs one (or two!).

In His name,

Karen

REFERRAL!!!!

2011-09-24T01:27:00.000-04:00

At 10:30 tonight I was on one of our phones talking to my mom when we got a call on my cell phone. I didn't answer the cell because I didn't completely recognize the number, but suggested to Kevin that I thought it was the same area code that our adoption agency was from. He was at the computer with Carissa and Tyler and quickly looked up the area code - and it was from the same state! Rather abruptly (Sorry mom! I was excited!), I hung up with my mom after telling her it was our agency calling. While on my phone calling back our agency, Kevin's cell phone rang. Kind-of in slow motion we all turned to see who was calling on his - our agency! My belly was doing flip-flops by this time - why else would our agency be calling at 10:30 at night but to give us our referral???

We answered Kevin's phone and put it on speaker. It was Nichole from Children's Hope. She said she had just come back into the office to get a little bit of work done when she noticed there was a voice mail. She checked it and got our good news! Their contact in Colombia said they had a referral for us, but the oldest child was a little older than what we are approved for. We are approved for up to 8 years and 11 months, but the oldest one is 9 years and 3 months. Would that work for our family? Nichole must have heard the cheers in the background from Carrissa, Tyler and Laurel. They were really, really excited! (They wanted us to adopt children who were their same ages, so they were really happy that the first child is 9 and not 8.)

So... the oldest child is 9. I think that is wonderful. That child will fit right in with Tyler and Laurel. Want to know the ages of the other ones? The next one is 6 years old. Oh, my. I love that age! At times, I still think of Laurel as 6. She will be 10 next month! There's more... the third child is 4! Two 4 year olds? Lyric, our daughter from China, is 4. I think it would be great for her to have a sibling/playmate close in age to her. I can just see them playing make-believe with the toy-kitchen. We must not forget the last one! Yup! There is one more child that may by added to the Burgess family. The last one is just an itty-bitty tyke at 2 years old! Wow! A 2 year old! We are going to have A LOT of (busy!) fun in this house!

Our family is going to be doing a lot of prayer over the weekend, but we are feeling really good about this referral. At least about the ages. We don't have any other information yet. It feels like Colombia just let our agency give us a nibble of a freshly baked cookie instead of giving us all of it! :) We know the ages of the children, but we don't know if they are all boys, all girls, boy-girl-girl-boy, girl-girl-girl-boy, and so on... Ah, the suspense!

Nichole said she would call or email her Colombian contact to ask if she could get any more information on the children, so that should be our next bit of news. Other than that, we will have to get an update to our home study done. We will need to be approved for up to 9 years old instead of 8. Hopefully, it would be a quick process. Oh, and if/when we do let Colombia know that it isn't an issue having a 9 year old instead of an 8 year old, we would soon be getting information on the children, including pictures! One really good thing about adopting from Colombia - you get a lot of information on the children.

We would appreciate prayers for our family this weekend about our decision. It's a big one that will have major effects on our family, including the children who were referred to us. Prayers for them would be nice also. Really, it isn't hard for me to imagine at all having 10 of us sitting around our dining room table. If this sibling group is the one that God had planned to be a part of our family all along then Kevin and I would officially have 8 children. They would be 13, 12, 10 (in October), 9, 6, 4, 4, and 2! Perfect.

In His name,

Karen

WE WERE APPROVED!!!!

2011-09-19T10:50:00.000-04:00

We just got a call from Nichole from Children's Hope - WE WERE APPROVED!!! Wahoo!! Kevin and I were a little nervous. Nichole called and left a message for us to call her. We called her right back but she was already in a meeting. Sneaky, bad thoughts soon started to enter our minds (well, they did mine). Were we approved? Do they need more information? And the worst - could we of been denied???? Bad, bad thoughts. About a 1/2 hour later she called back and gave us the good news :) Why did I ever let those thoughts into my head?

So what happens now? Nichole emailed their representative in Colombia to see if our dossier was already sent to a region. Once it is in a region, they will review our file to see if there are any children available who could be referred to us based on our dossier. If there are - we get our referral! Once that happens, it takes about 2 months for all the paperwork to get done so we can travel.

It is still possible for us to travel by the end of the year. We would have to be in Colombia by about Nov. 20th in order to get the adoption completed in 2011. If not, we might have to wait until January to travel. Funny, we traveled on Thanksgiving day in 2010 to get Lyric in China - could it be that we travel Thanksgiving weekend to get the newest members of our family??? Whenever we get our children, it will be with God's perfect timing.

Praising our Lord!

Karen

Nesting - big time!

2011-09-02T01:43:00.000-04:00

It would be a bit embarrassing to have anyone over to our house right now. Really. I'm not the cleanest wife in the world nor was I the cleanest daughter in the world when I was living at home! But looking around me right now... well... it's pretty bad. I would take a picture to show you, but I think I'll wait until I get it looking at least half-way decent first!

I am nesting. A lot. And to make matters worse, I'm one of those people who can only do 1 or 2 things half-way decent at a time. (I should be preparing to teach the kids their home school lessons!) Right now, it is decluttering the ENTIRE house for a fund-raising sale - and putting away food for the winter. With the cleaning, I feel like yard sale season is tumbling towards me and is going to knock me down and keep on going before I ever get around to having our sale. And with storing the garden produce, I feel like I'm a busy squirrel frantically gathering nuts for the winter so I won't have to think so hard about the menu after bringing home our new family members.

Today, as a labor of love because I would have just froze them, my oldest daughter and I canned 4 half-pints of pickled baby corn at the request of my husband... and my oldest daughter..., froze 4 bags of sliced zucchini, and made the preparations for canning zucchini relish tomorrow. We also need to pick and can more dilly beans (I sure hope they are good!), bake some sugar pie pumpkins in order to store the pumpkin puree, and at some point I still need to pick the basil and turn it into basil jelly...

And right now, I should be heading to bed. My husband and I just finished sealing the grout on a small mudroom we tiled - in anticipation for the freezer chest that will be arriving tomorrow morning. I'm actually really excited about the freezer chest. Since I have gone on this "storing food for winter" kick, I have run out of freezer space. My plan is to get a 1/4 or a 1/2 a side of beef to put in the freezer and then stuff the rest of the freezer full of homemade meals that I will lovingly serve on our new dishes.

We have waited years and years to get new dishes (we just celebrated 15 years of marriage!). For the past few years, our dishes haven't really matched. And because I like the lightness and durability of them so much, I rescued my mom's old Corelle dishes from one of her yard sales and started using them for our own. They aren't exactly... stylish, but they work great - which made me finally break down and order a set (different from my moms!) - with enough plates and bowls to go around for all of us, our new children, and any company we may have over.

As it is so late and my mind is rambling a bit, I was thinking about putting some of the plates and bowls in drawers instead of the cupboard, which would make it easier for little hands to put the dishes away. All I would have to do is find some other place for all the items in our junk drawer(s)!

Okay... before I tell too much embarrassing stuff about my lack of housecleaning skills I had better call it a night! But first, I want to tell my husband how much I love him, how I thank God for him, and for the wonderful 15 years of marriage. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the next 15 years! Thank you for working so hard for our family and for being a great dad! I love you! (And now I will go put the laundry away that is piled on our bed so you can go to sleep!)

Night'

Karen

In the meantime... what am I reading?

2011-08-27T11:20:00.000-04:00

Last night Laurel, Lyric and I headed out to do some grocery shopping for the week (and Kevin's birthday!). I got to thinking that we hadn't visited Family Christian Bookstore in a while so we headed over there for a little bit first. When I remember about it, I like to see what their $5.00 specials are for the DVD's, but this time we had all of them. I did find something else that looked good but wasn't a $5.00 special, and so far it has been well worth the few extra dollars.

Orphanology, written by Tony Merida and Rick Morton, tells about the many different, needed, ways in which we can get involved in caring for orphans. The writers share their firsthand experiences with orphans and the adoption of children into their own family. More importantly, they write that "Orphan care is more than just adoption. At the heart of orphan care is grace. Grace that flows from Christ's redemptive work on the Cross. Grace that reconciles us with God. Grace that we extend through the care of orphans and others."

I'm really looking forward to reading this book! Today is a very busy day for us though, so I will have to put it aside until I can give it the attention that it deserves (and the quiet time!). For now, I am off to bake a birthday cake, zucchini bread for our adoption support group picnic tonight, and our dinner! In the garden, the baby corn is calling me to be picked, and the basil leaves are telling me they want me to try them out in basil jelly! Busy day!

When I finish the book, I'll be sure to post what I thought about it here!

Karen

Just a few favorite pictures

2011-08-10T01:04:00.000-04:00


Carissa took this shot of Lyric - beautiful.


Another beautiful girl (with a new haircut!)

Lovely Laurel having fun.

Lyric wanted to wear one of her Chinese dresses to the park.

Here is a shot in color.

Another day at the park - can you see the love on Ty's face for his sister?

These two met in China & became GREAT friends (they even share the same Birthday - here they are being extremely silly!

Tyler pushing around 3 great girls!

Wonderful bunch of children

Dossier should be done being translated!

2011-08-09T23:46:00.000-04:00

I got just a bit antsy the other day and emailed Nicole at Children's Hope to see if she thought our dossier could be done being translated... She said yes! She "thinks" that by now it would be done with the translation part and that it would be in the hands of ICBF. Eventually, ICBF will review the entire dossier and will either approve us for a sibling group or request more information. I'm hoping and praying that we will hear something around the middle of this month (which is coming up quick!). Because we have requested a sibling group, where the oldest is up to 8 years and 11 months, this is looked at as special needs and the whole process is supposed to be expedited.

One of my prayers is that we will have our children by the end of this year - 2011. I know that by God's grace this can happen. We are also praying (and would appreciate your prayers for these also) that the children are being shown love and affection, that they will adapt well into our family, and that our entire new family will blend well together after we take a little while to get used to one another and form our new rolls and attachments to each other.

The rest of our children are doing really good. They have been getting a lot of fresh air working in the garden this summer! As for Lyric, she is settling in well. She is sleeping really good at night, but she sure is a light sleeper! The people at the orphanage were right about that :) She communicates really well, and she is having fewer tantrums/meltdowns - and even then they don't last nearly as long as they used to (45 min). According to my measurements, she has grown 1 1/2 inches since we brought her home in December. We will go see the doctor in a couple of months for a check-up and get the official results then.

Thank you for all of your support and your prayers. We really do appreciate it.

In His name,

Karen

Dossier is on its way!

2011-07-07T16:22:00.000-04:00

Our agency emailed this morning to say that our dossier was on its way to Colombia! It will get there in 7 to 10 days and then it will be translated.

In the meantime, we are busy with 4H projects and gardening. This is Laurel's first year in regular 4H and she is the most excited about electric and woodworking. Carissa enjoys photography the most and Tyler likes electric. This year he gets to wire his own lamp!

We got a late start on our garden this year b/c it's the first time we put one in. We had to grind down the stumps from the trees we had cut and then we dug out the roots. Then, we had to wait for all the rain to stop and finally we got to plant! The three oldest children have their own garden plots. So far, Laurel is the only one who has gotten to pick anything out of their garden - radishes!

Besides the garden, we now have one cat, a ton of chickens including a mama hen and 5 babies, 2 guinea hens, 2 rabbits, and 6 baby turkeys. The cat kills the mice and snakes. The chickens give us eggs. The guinea hens eat the bugs and let us know when there are "intruders", the rabbits give us fertilizer for the garden, and the turkeys will be filling our bellies when they get bigger! Ahhh, we are truly blessed.

Karen

Here we grow again!

2011-07-01T01:24:00.000-04:00

I love that saying.

Before we left for China to add Lyric to our family, God had already placed it on our hearts for us to adopt again - but this time, He was/is leading our family to the country of Colombia! (Hola!) We even did all the research we could and had contacted agencies before we left to get Lyric. We knew our family wasn't done growing, but we did want to make sure that Lyric attached well to our family (and us to her), so we put talk of the adoption on the "back burner" for a little while and focused on Lyric and our other children.

Everything in China and at home with our new family went really well - and starting the process to adopt was again often talked about - and prayed over. It was never far from our thoughts. We called a few more agencies and found out that most don't really like to even take an application to adopt until 6 months after a major life event, which is what adoption is considered.

Despite that, I ended up finding one highly recommended agency, Children's Hope International, that said I could write a letter to their executive director to ask for an exception. That letter was quickly written up - and approval was soon granted!

That was a few months ago... since then we have updated our home study, gathered all of our paperwork, had two sets of fingerprints done, put our entire dossier together, and sent it to our agency - they'll get it Tuesday morning. All of that was no easy feat! Hopefully, our agency will get all the paperwork they had to request and our dossier will head to Colombia on Wednesday!

We were told it takes about a week to 10 days for the paperwork to get to Colombia.

Then, the whole dossier will be translated and submitted to the ICBF (Colombian Institute of Family Welfare). That should put us at the end of July or the beginning of August.

Then, we wait for a referral for our new children.

Yep, I said "children"! After much prayer and talk, our family has requested to be approved to adopt a sibling group, up to 8 years old. We did make the request that one be a boy (Tyler really needs a brother!), and one be a girl, but that is just a request and not a guarantee. Sibling groups in Colombia where one child is age 8 or older are considered "special needs" and are quickly processed, being placed ahead of any considered "non-special needs". The rest of this adoption could move pretty fast, and I hope you will follow along with us.

I'll keep you posted on any updates we get, but in the meantime I'll have to get some updated pictures of our family on here and fix up this blog a bit.

In Christ,

Karen

Home at last!

2011-06-15T23:56:00.000-04:00

Brrrr! It was really cold getting out of the airport in Indy! Everyone had to bundle up in their jackets and hats and Lyric thought it was really cold on her face when we got out in the wind.

A good friend of ours, Joe (Thanks!), picked us up at the airport in his van so he was the first one to meet Lyric and to see our weary, sleep-deprived bodies. Our friends were meeting for house church at the time we arrived so we had Joe take us over to the Mast's house to fellowship for a bit and to introduce Lyric. We got to share some candy we had brought back with us and some other Chinese food. I think we even shared some airplane food - packaged tofu! Ahh, we also split up a moon cake for everyone to try.

Before too long, our eyes were growing heavy (jet-lag was settling in) and we had Joe take us home. It was so, so nice to pull into our driveway. Lyric had fallen asleep in the van, so she didn't even get a first glance of her new home as we pulled into the driveway. We carried her in the house as she was fast asleep and left her coat on her while she slept on the couch. We had kept the heat turned down low while we were gone so it took awhile for everything to heat up. She slept cozily snuggled up in her jacket and a blanket.

While Lyric slept, we brought in our luggage and did some unpacking. We tried to stay awake for as long as we could, but I think we ended up falling asleep pretty early. I guess we were all so used to sleeping in hotel rooms together that we all fell asleep in the living room! We kept the fire going so it was nice and toasty. In the middle of the night we were all wide awake and ended up watching a movie together. The children thought that was great fun! (So did I!)

Our original plan was to have Lyric sleep in the girls' room with them, but then we thought better of it. We wanted her to really learn who her mommy and daddy were and we figured the best way to do this was by putting her toddler bed in our room. Still, for about the first week we slept in the living room and gave Lyric her naps on one of the couches in there.

One thing Lyric did NOT want to do was take naps. She would fight taking them so hard - not physically - just with keeping her eyes open and by sitting up instead of laying down. Her eyes would get so heavy and her head would start to nod and then she would jerk herself awake again. When I thought she was finally asleep enough I would try to lay her down so she could sleep better. But when I did... she would wake up and start to cry - she would be mad. I should have learned the first time, but time and time again she would fall asleep the same way and I would try to lay her down again. There were only a few times where I was able to lay her down without her waking up and crying. Now we have her taking naps in her own bed upstairs in our bedroom. She has transitioned really well. When she wakes up from her nap she will call out to whomever took her to her bed to tuck her in and read her a story. It's really sweet to hear her call out for Tyler, Laurel or Carissa.

Karen

P.S. I finally did it! I got caught up on all the posts I wanted to write about on our journey to Lyric! (And it's only been 6 months since we've been home with her!) Now I can start posting some updated photos and let everyone in on some really exciting news that our family has! Any guesses? I need to switch the format of the blog around a bit also.

Going home!

2011-06-15T23:49:00.000-04:00

What an amazing time we had in China! We added our daughter, Lyric, to our family. We visited with Brad, his wife Jieying, and her parents. We got to introduce our children to a new culture and to new experiences. We made some new friends and, well, the whole thing was just amazing. I tried to put some of it into words the past few weeks, but they don't even come close to the experiences we had and the blessings we received from God.

Lyric standing on American "soil"!

We were picked up early in the morning at our hotel by Brad and Jieying and taken to the airport. It was tough to say good-bye to one another, knowing it would be awhile before we saw them again, but our lives had taken different paths, and we were all very grateful for the time we were able to spend together.

The plane ride from Beijing to Chicago went really well... except for one small incidence. We were served a really good sandwich in the middle of the night. I had already given Lyric hers when Kevin, from a few seats over, quietly gestured that he would like 1/2 of Lyric's sandwich. Now, she really didn't need the whole sandwich to herself, and I should have known better than to have given it to her all at once. But when Kevin told me he wanted some of it, I knew there was going to be trouble - and trouble there was... in the form of really, really loud hurtful, angry crying... that went on and on and on. I even caught the Chinese woman in front of us glaring, I mean glancing, back at us to see what was going on. I wonder what her thoughts were. Sadly, my first thought was that she was thinking that I had no right to be with a Chinese "baby". But, she could also of been thinking, "Oh, that poor little girl. I hope she's okay. What a wonderful mother (me!) she has to be comforting her like she is." I don't know... the look was more like a look of annoyance...

Laurel was so happy to bring that hat home!

Ahhh.... but when all else fails I can always, always result to bribery by candy bar! There just happened to be stuck in the box with each sandwich a twix bar with two "sticks" on it, and in the midst of the yelling I thought, "Maybe, just maybe, she will stop crying over the sandwich if I give her the twix bar!" Well, I didn't want to give her the whole thing. I thought one sugar-laden bar would be enough to calm her down so I attempted to open the twix bar without her seeing it and attempted to break it in half - all while she was sitting in my lap screaming. I got the tiniest of pieces broken off before she saw it. Her tears stopped, the screaming stopped - and I quickly handed over the bribe. Silence is a GOOD thing in the middle of the night on a plane that is flying from Beijing, China to Chicago, Illinois!

I didn't get a whole lot of sleep on the flight home, but I don't think Tyler did either. Almost every time I looked over at him he was awake. Laurel was in the middle of her daddy and Tyler. She could cuddle down into the seat really nice and probably got the most sleep out of any of us. Carissa sat next to me by the window, helping with Lyric when she could.

Our layover at the Chicago airport wasn't too long... only 8 hours :) Fortunately, we have great children who can entertain themselves pretty easily. We ate a little food. Took a few walks. Got lots of drinks at the water fountain. Almost before we knew it we had to get in line to board our last plane home!

See their backpacks? I had them stuffed!

Tyler is in DS world.

See Carissa's sleeve? Lyric is asking her to take her to the drinking fountain - for the 4th time.

She really liked drinking at the fountain.

Last day in China

2011-06-15T23:13:00.001-04:00

What a busy, busy day trying to pack in all of the last minute things we wanted to do while in Beijing (shopping!) We stayed at the same hotel that we stayed at before, just a different room.

Brad had wanted some American food so he took us to a restaurant called Grandma's Kitchen. They had lemonade, milk shakes, onion rings, and huge burgers - called American Burger. (I think he was trying to prepare us for arriving back in the U.S!)

Yum - biscuits with sausage gravy at Grandma's Kitchen

On the right, above is Brad and Kevin digging into biscuits with sausage gravy. I snuck a bite also - it was really good and disappeared way too quickly. The milkshake glass in the left corner was Tyler's. That disappeared really quick also! I have a picture of the burger that Carissa got, but it turned out blurry. It was a HUGE burger, and she ate every single bite. I was shocked that she could eat that much!

I had a really good sandwich and onion rings.

After a filling meal we went on to do all of our shopping. We had Renminbi (Chinese currency) burning holes in our pockets and we still had a lot of gifts left to buy. We ended up back at the same market we had gone to before, which is good because we knew our way around. We negotiated for and bought a lot of tea, a tea set, chop sticks, Chinese decorations and many other items. One of the items I really like is a box designed to hold chopsticks. Back home, I have all our chopsticks wrapped in a rubber band and stuck in a drawer and this holder was one of the items I had set out to purchase, that and a tea set I got to pick out myself. There was one section of the market we hadn't went into the last time we were there, and it was filled with tea cups and tea pots. It was wonderful! I had a hard time deciding on just the right one, but I managed!

Laurel in the street lights.

Some of the other great items we bought were tea tumblers - you know how there are coffee mugs? Well, these are for your loose leaf tea and they are great! I was so excited to discover them because we really like loose leaf tea. We ended up getting three plastic ones and two glass ones. It's a good thing we bought the plastic ones! Not very long after we were back to the states Laurel knocked one of the glass ones over and broke it and then about a week later Kevin knocked the other one on the kitchen sink and broke that one. They were really good quality glasses, we just happened to knock them in the right places...

Oh... Lyric was a big hit at the market. When you first walk into this market there is a tea "shop" set up on the immediate left. One of the ladies here gave Lyric a gift, it is called "pee-pee boy". I know. Strange. It's a little ceramic boy about 3 inches high. When soaked in water he will go potty. Really. After being given this "wonderful" gift Lyric played with it for just a bit and then broke it by dropping it. The lady who gave it to her was wonderful about it, but it was still a bit embarrassing...

Later, when we were picking out the tea pot Lyric was given a few more gifts. Paper folded into the shape of a gun (it was just for fun!), a squeaky toy mouse, and another pee-pee boy, except this one wasn't a boy, it was a mouse. Pee-pee mouse successfully made it home with us without breaking and is now hiding in a drawer somewhere...

After spending almost all the money that was burning holes in our pockets we headed out for our last dinner with Brad and Jieying. We voted to go to one of our favorite restaurants and had a great meal and a great time.

At the hotel, Kevin ended up going back out with Brad for one last "night on the town" together. After getting the children tucked in for bed (with Chinese cartoons on to help them settle down), I began the daunting task of packing and repacking all of our clothes, gifts, and souvenirs. By the time I was done, our backpacks were very stuffed and pretty heavy! To be honest, I really like the challenge of packing a bunch of suitcases or even packing luggage into a car. I look at it as a puzzle that has to be figured out. I can happily announce that not one item broke on our way home from China!

Looking back, I don't even remember sleeping that night, but I'm sure I did... I do kind-of remember that the morning came really, really fast...

Taking the Train from Guangzhou to Beijing!

2011-06-15T22:54:00.000-04:00

We woke up early in the morning to finish packing for the train ride. Brad met us at the hotel and we took two separate cars to the station where we met Jieying and her parents, who wanted to see all of us off. We had a lot of luggage with us so it was good to have the extra help!

Lyric liked sitting on the top bunk.

Everything went by so fast that before we knew it we were on the train getting all of our luggage settled in. Kevin and I had traveled on a train in Ukraine a few years ago so we were happy to see the soft beds we paid extra for were really nice. There was even a built-in television at the foot of each bed, clean sheets, and soft pillows. Carissa, Laurel, Lyric, Jieying and I shared one cabin and Brad, Kevin, and Tyler shared another cabin with a Chinese gentleman.

Lyric and Laurel couldn't decide which bunk they wanted to sit on so they were like little monkeys going from bunk to bunk (which kept us busy lifting Lyric up and down!).

We had brought a few snacks with us and Jieying and her parents had packed food as well. It was going to be a long train ride - it took about 23 hours, so we had to eat a few meals on the train. Around meal times, someone would come down the isle selling food, like noodles and rice. Most of the time we ate our snack food and got hot water for Ramon Noodles.

Laurel was being a monkey.

Every now and then the train would make a stop at a small station. Kevin, Brad and Jieying got off the train to stretch their legs and ended up buying some corn on the cob. We had learned by now that Lyric did not know how or when to stop eating. When they brought in the corn, she had already had a good meal, but she wanted more. She really, really liked eating the corn on the cob, but we eventually had to take it away. I honestly think she would have made herself sick had we let her keep eating. Everything is so new to her. She likes to try everything. When we get home we will start working on regular meals!

It was really nice taking the train because we got out of the city and were able to see a lot of the countryside. At one point when we were in Guizhou, Laurel had asked when we were going to get into the country. We didn't get to walk around, but at least we got to ride through it!

Protecting their crops.

The children also got a big kick out of going through tunnels. They didn't particularly like using the bathroom on the train, but at least they had a western toilet to sit on! When we were on the train in Ukraine, the bathrooms would be locked 15 minutes before we got to a town and unlocked 15 minutes after we left the town. Know why? Anything that goes into the toilet drops right on down to the tracks below - biodegradable, right? I think it was about the same way on the China train.

Beautiful girl

I slept better than I thought I would on the train, although I still woke up quite a bit. I put Lyric at my feet to sleep, and I woke up a few times to make sure she was alright. Then, the train would stop at stations in the night and I woke up at each one thinking it was time to pack up our bags. Still, it was very comfortable, and I would do it again it a heart-beat. It was much cheaper than taking the plane for all of us from Guangzhou back to Beijing where we would get our plane home.

After a decent night's sleep it was time to pack up the bags, catch a ride to our hotel, and then head back out for our last day of shopping in Beijing before we headed home!

Older building. Wonder what the signs say?

Nice house all by itself.


Baskets of vegetables are at her side.


Pretty view.


Lyric was happy a second ago!

Brad is liking that corn on the cob!

Lyric thoroughly enjoying her corn.


Just hanging out - great smile.

This beautiful girl looks suspicious - I think she got into the candy!

Picked up Lyric's Visa, Out With Friends, Last Meal With the Inlaws

2011-04-27T14:34:00.000-04:00

Sleepy Tyler

Today was another busy, fun-filled day. It started out with taking a picture of Tyler - he was half on and half off the blow-up mattress. We had brought two mattresses with us to China, knowing that we would need the extra beds. They served us well the entire time, and it was well worth it to haul them around in the suit cases.

Laurel is pretending to be a knight.

We had planned in advance to meet with the Bates Family for a walk around the town and for lunch so we headed over to their hotel, the White Swan, after breakfast. On the way we took pictures of the children with the many statues that are around the island. In the first one, Laurel is pretending she is a knight. In the second, she is fighting the pawn. In the third, Laurel and Lyric are with the rest of the children, following the music player, and in the last one, I think Carissa is showing off how tall she is by leaning on the child's head! (It's official, Carissa is now taller than I am!)

We really enjoyed walking around town with the Bates family. I know for sure that Laurel and McKenna liked skipping and hopping along! We ended up taking the Bates to our favorite restaurant and successfully ordered a bunch of good food. If I remember correctly, when we were all done, we were stuffed. On the main floor of the restaurant, Kevin and I ended up buying a bunch of single-yoked moon cakes so we could take them home with us to share with friends and family.

Laurel is fighting the Rook.

Toward the end of our walk-about with the Bates family we stopped at another McDonalds for some coffee and hot chocolate. We sure did visit McDonalds a lot in China! I don't think we go there that many times in a year back in the States!

After our walk with the Bates, we parted ways and headed back to our room for a bit. I remember that Kevin had a bunch of business work he had to get done in the hotel room. It was hard for him to be away from his business for as long as what he was, but in the end everything worked out great. We rested a little in the room and then it was time to meet Brad, Jieying, and the Wu's for one last meal together. The Wu's took us to a restaurant that served hot pot. This time, we had clams in it.

For some reason my stomach wasn't feeling well that evening so I decided to pass on the clams and just stuck with a few bites of bread and vegetables. Each of the children hesitantly tried the clams, and Laurel wanted to take the shells home with her! It was really nice of the Wu's to take us to dinner there. The kids enjoyed the rest of the meal and the evening with Brad, Jieying and her parents.

Before we knew it, our meal had come to a close and it was time for us to get the kids back to the hotel room. If memory serves me correctly, we did a little bit of souvenir shopping on our way back to our hotel. Even though it was late, there were still some shops open. The kids bought some gifts for friends, and I bought a few little items for stocking stuffers for Christmas.

All the little children following the violin player.

When we got back to the hotel room, I had a lot of packing to do. In the morning we were taking the train to Beijing!

We had a wonderful time in Guangzhou, touring the area, and visiting with Brad's in-laws. It is an experience we will never forget.

Enjoy the pictures.

Carissa showing off how tall she is!

McKenna and Laurel - two peas in a pod.

Bikes, like the one on the left, are pretty common.

The entrance to our favorite restaurant in Guangzhou.

Caught on camera - Carissa using her hands and Tyler using his chopstick like a spear!

Side street.

Big Mac, Fila-a-Fish, Quarter-Pounder, French Fries... You deserve a break today at McDonalds...

Two beautiful girls drinking hot cocoa together.

One beautiful girl drinking hot cocoa.

Laurel is sniffing her clams. She wanted to keep the shells...

Sitting around the table for hot pot.

Laurel, delighted with her new glasses.

First Lyric, then Jieying, then Jieying's mom - all in different stages of taking a bite. Cute.